In watching the news since Barack Obama's inauguration, I have been struck by the apparent absurdity of many of his actions. First of all, many of the people appointed to his cabinet have had problems. Timothy Geitner and Tom Daschle were both tax cheats, as well as two less prominent cabinet nominees. Immediately after being elected he announced that there would be no lobbyists in his administration. That executive order lasted about two days before he started granting waivers to it in order to fill some cabinet positions with, of course, lobbyists.
Obama also started backpedaling on campaign promises almost immediately after being elected. The economy which he was going to miraculously heal will now get worse before it gets better. And most importantly, he let Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid load his precious stimulus bill dangerously full of earmarks and pork.
My initial response is that this relatively inexperienced politician that we just elected to the nation's highest office is inept and in over his head. A second look however, makes one wonder if he isn't just the opposite.
To frame my coming argument, look at the campaign. Obama campaigned on magic. It was all about hope and change. The primary plank in his platform was the idea that he was not the man he was running to replace. The candidate spoke very little of himself, and even attacked as sinister those who tried to scrutinize him at all. He pointed out flaws in others to direct attention away from others.
Now as President, he seems a little more flawed, but I think he is doing two things, misdirecting and overloading. In fact, he is mostly misdirecting by overloading.
My first point is that by having us all focused on pork like lawn sod for the national mall, and money for the National Endowment for the Arts, we missed, until the bill had passed the house, the fact that a major step toward nationalized healthcare was buried in the bill's 647 pages.
He is also trying to make us look at how bad the economy is and is constantly telling us what a crisis we are in and how the world will all but end unless the stimulus passes. He attacks as destructive to the nation's future his opponents in talk radio and on Fox News. The President also tells us that we must approve his Cabinet nominees, because Tim Geitner is the only man who can save us.
What is the play here? What is he trying to do? First, he misdirects us by making us afraid and telling us that he has a plan and can save us. Second, he gives us something that we find outrageous to focus on while he slips something more sinister by under our nose. Third, he gives us so much information that we tune it all out.
The third is perhaps the most sinister. He can use this information overload to discredit his opponents. If we hear nothing but criticism from them, something new every day, how long will we continue to listen? If there is so much going on, what will we miss that we should have fought?
I argue that Obama is much more brilliant than we give him credit for. He is an absolute socialist, of the Marxist school and such do not trust the people to rule. Through this political slight of hand, our President is seeking to establish a socialist state with a permanent ruling class and subject all the rest of us to his will. We need to wake up and fight it. We can fight mostly by staying informed, involved, and by not tuning out due to information overload. When we recognize what we are up against, we can better combat it.
